August and September
have both been busy for various reasons and neither allowed me particularly intensive
periods of reading. Around my birthday
in August, we were away in Florence for a wedding planning trip and then we were seeing a
lot of friends and family. In September,
we had a few busy weekends and then were on holiday for a couple of weeks and
(not unexpectedly) the only time I really had to read while we were away was
while we were travelling between locations.
So all in all between the two months, I read a not-so-grand total of 7
books, which is actually more than I was expecting. I'd thought that I'd read quite a mixed bag
of genres but when I look at the books, it turns out that that's not strictly
true. The vast majority had a
sci-fi/fantasy slant, although they weren't all the same type of
sci-fi/fantasy book…

The Books

The Hatching by Ezekiel Boone (3*)
- a spider-based dystopian novel that is easy to read and has plenty of action
but feels as though it has something missing.
I've actually written a mini review that features this and will be up
over the next few days or so I won't ramble too much about it here.

The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle (3*) - a bit disappointing if I'm being honest.
I'm trying to read the Sherlock Holmes stories in vaguely chronological
order and I'm still in quite the early days (very early days) of the characters
and I'm finding that the stories have a different feel to some of the later
ones that I read way back when I was in school.
They're entertaining enough but the character development is a bit iffy
(this one had some particularly poorly elaborated/set up developments for Dr
Watson) and I'm looking forward to getting past them and into more established
territory.

One Damned Thing After
Another by
Jodi Taylor (4*) - I started this while I was slightly floundering through Leviathan
Wakes because it seemed like a lighter read and I loved it. Hanna read it too and reviewed it - I totally
agree with her review but I'm going to try and scribble out some of my own
thoughts soon too. In the meantime, it's
about a time travelling historical research organisation and it's just so much
fun. I have the second one to read soon.

Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey (3*) -
this felt like it took me forever to read. I don't usually read space opera but for some
reason I fancied trying some and I crawled through my first effort. I don't know if it's because I'm just not
used to the style or the themes or just because this one is part of a longer
series and so is a bit more back-story heavy than others might be but it was a
bit like hard work. Another one I've
written most of a review for and will be chatting about soon.

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas (4*) -
I very rarely pre-order books but I did pre-order this one and it was
great. A spoiler-free brief review will be going up soon because I do have some thoughts on how the series is panning out. I enjoyed this book and I swept through the
pages generally but it wasn't perfect and I have some reservations about some
of the character development. Not so
much that they'd put me off finishing the series (I need to know how this story
ends) but ones that took the extra star from what was otherwise another great part of a tremendous series.

Harry Potter and the
Philosopher's Stone
by J.K. Rowling (5*) - I've never re-read this before and I *loved* it. Obviously I knew what I was in for but
reading this so long after having initially read it (about 17 years ago) was so
much fun. The story's so heart-warming
and re-reading the beginning of the friendship of Harry, Ron and Hermione was
far sweeter than I remembered. I think
if anything I was surprised by how short it was and how quickly I flew through
it. I'll be setting some time aside for
the rest of the series soon, definitely.

Aaaand that's it!

The Other Stuff

In the non-bookish
world, we managed to pick a venue and photographer for our wedding and I've
chosen bridesmaids dresses, all of which is tremendously exciting. It's still a bit unreal that we'll be getting
married in about 8 months time but we've got our Save the Date cards out so
it's starting to come together!

The biggest event was Hong Kong/Japan, which
I've been looking forward to for ages.
Hong Kong was a heck of a lot of fun.
We walked for miles around the city and ate so much delicious Chinese
food and tried some local craft beers and it was brilliant. We stayed on Hong Kong Island and explored
Kowloon and the New Territories too. A blend
of cultures and a fascinating place to explore.
And then there was Japan. I've
been wanting to go to Japan for absolutely years and oh man did it live up to
my expectations!! It's an incredible
country and Tokyo is one of the best cities we've ever visited. Shiny new skyscrapers next to beautifully
ornate old temples. Stunning, peaceful
gardens and parks bang in the middle of business districts and other commercial
areas. Quaint, traditional restaurants
and bars in the glitziest of shopping districts. It's stunning and immaculate and I took
hundreds of pictures. The people were
all super friendly and so helpful. We
didn't struggle half as much as we feared we might and I know that most of that
is because the people were so gracious and patient when we were trying to
communicate in the very few Japanese words that we were able to pick up. Visiting Fuji Hakone National Park was
something really special too and the traditional dinner that we had that night was
absolutely stunning both visually and in taste.
I know how fortunate that we are to be able to travel and experience
countries like Japan so I spent the whole time feeling super grateful and just
revelling in everything. We're hoping to
go back to Japan soon to visit some other places and see even more! If you've ever thought about going but
weren't 100% sure, I can't recommend it highly enough.

I hope you all had superb Augusts and Septembers and that your Octobers aren't yet too gloomy!